Baryogenesis: A small review of the big picture

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Abstract

From the point of view of contemporary physics, the Universe is a strange place because it contains a considerable amount of matter. We are so used to the existence of matter around, or for that matter inside, us that we take it for granted. We are, however, hard pressed to explain based on known fundamental principles why the Universe contains mostly matter but hardly any antimatter. Our cardinal principles of the corpuscular world are encapsulated in the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particles. This model contains twelve types of matter particles: six quarks and six leptons. These matter particles are differentiated by two quantum numbers: quarks carry a baryon number and leptons a unit of lepton number. They all have antimatter partners. The mass, and all other quantum numbers, of the anti-particles are the same as their partners', with the exception of electric charge, which is opposite.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Interplay between Particle and Astroparticle Physics workshop, 18-22 August 2014, Queen Mary University
Number of pages10
Publication statusPublished - 12 Nov 2014

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